The role of fathers’ and mothers’ acceptance in adaptive emotion regulation in Chinese preadolescents: Distinguishing between- and within-person effects

Abstract

The relationship between parental styles and the regulation of emotions in adolescents has been extensively explored in previous research conducted in Western countries. However, the absence of research conducted within the cultural context of China, combined with imprecise methodologies, impedes the empirical validation of this association. This study aims to examine the longitudinal relationship between parental acceptance and preadolescent emotion regulation in the Chinese cultural context, utilizing a cross-lagged panel model with random intercepts. The sample comprised 1987 middle school students, with 56.10 % being male and a mean age of 12.32 years, from Guangdong and Shandong provinces. Participants provided feedback on assessments of parental acceptance and emotion regulation at three time points: the first and final semesters of seventh grade and the initial semester of eighth grade. The findings revealed a significant association between the random intercepts of paternal and maternal acceptance and adaptive emotion regulation in preadolescents at the between-person level. However, no statistically significant within-person cross-lagged effect was observed from parental acceptance to preadolescent adaptive emotion regulation. Similarly, changes in preadolescent emotion regulation did not significantly predict changes in parental acceptance. These findings challenge the tripartite model and suggest that the association between parental acceptance and preadolescent adaptive emotion regulation is predominantly influenced by trait-related factors.